County Council updates streetlighting policy

Streetlighting

Posted on: 9 January 2019

Devon County Council’s Cabinet has agreed an updated streetlighting policy to continue to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The energy costs of operating more than 88,000 streetlights and other lighting assets across the county is around £3 million this financial year – and it accounts for a significant amount of the County Council’s carbon emissions.

Over the past three years, the County Council has converted over 25,000 street lights to low energy LED technology and has replaced more than 5,400 streetlighting columns.

Energy reduction over the past five years has saved over £800,000 – although some of these savings have been used to cover energy price rises.

The continued change in technology to LED lighting will also improve the reliability of the streetlights, and “night scouting”, to monitor whether lights are working, will be reduced. More reliance will be placed on public reporting of faulty lights, although regular safety inspections will continue.

In limited locations where it is safe and appropriate to do so, and in line with planning and advertising regulations, the County Council will also explore the possibility of advertising banners to be attached to lighting columns as a potential revenue stream.

The County Council will also look into the possibility of using streetlighting infrastructure for the installation of WiFi equipment and trials of electric vehicle charging locations.

Councillor Stuart Hughes

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management, said: “The change to part-night lighting in residential areas and conversion of around a third of our street lights to LED lighting has significantly reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions, and we will continue to embrace new technology.

“Devon still has a few locations where street lighting has been maintained on private or unadopted roads and it is felt this should only continue by exception in future, but consultation would be held with local county councillors in any such areas so that we can look at each case on its own merits.

“Safety will always be our priority and by revising our street lighting service we can ensure it is a more effective and efficient service that is fit for the future.”

To reduce costs, councillors agreed not to retain responsibility for streetlights in private roads. The County Council will, instead, seek to transfer lights on private roads to those responsible for the private roads unless it is in the public interest for Devon to maintain them.

The authority supported the adoption of a pragmatic approach, and any decisions on whether it continues providing the service in a private road will be made in consultation with local county councillors.

4 comments on “County Council updates streetlighting policy”

I am concerned about the idea of the streetlight infrastructure being used to support WiFi and so leading to continued proliferation of microwave radiation in our environments. There is no evidence of the long term safety of wireless technology and the accepted advice is to switch off WiFi and other wireless devices at night in order to promote healthy sleep. Many streetlights are close to bedroom windows and WiFi signals will penetrate into these rooms, disrupting occupants sleep. I do not consent to this rollout of WiFi, not that I am being asked.

It is a very personal issue, but conversely too many lights leads to dependence, and negative impacts for those affected by street light glare and energy use. In some rural areas where lights are scarce, people cope just fine, but the creep continues as developments are required to obliterate the night sky with new columns. Unless stats can show that crime increases when the lights go out, I suspect this is just a perception based on the fear of the dark. So in my view, more lights out please and well done DCC for gradually removing us from the light pollution map.

Great to see that the lights are being replaced with low energy lights but sadly with the lights being switched off at night the level of crime has gone up in my area. Once the lights are off the criminals come out and I’ve had people repeatedly coming to my road trying cars /sheds etc once the lights are off. I was hoping with the LED lights in place now and as crime has gone up the night policy may have been reviewed.

I totally agree with Maria’s comment, particularly were a road leads into an estate which then links to smaller estates. Antisocial behaviour has definitely increased as a result of the lights going off and so has the fear of older people who need to go outside in the early hours. These lights really do need to be turned back on as a matter of urgency,